Planting seeds of literacy in fertile young minds

COLOURFUL CREATION: This funky new library at the MC Weiler Primary School in Alexandra could be the first of many in townships.

Staff Reporter

Only 8 percent of township schools in SA have functioning libraries. BBDO SA, through its non-profit advertising agency, the MAL Foundation, aims to change all this with its Seed library project.

The first library is under construction at the MC Weiler Primary School in Alexandra.

Prominent SA advertising man Mike Schalit is the project initiator and founder of the MAL Foundation.

He is also co-founder of Net#work BBDO and creative head of BBDO SA.

He intends this funky new library to be the first of many in township schools across the country to help develop young minds.

“There are more than a few reasons we dubbed it Seed,” says the philanthropically minded Schalit.

“Beyond its standing for School Extended Education Design, we hope to inspire a national township literacy movement by planting a seed in the minds of all our corporate leaders to ‘adopt’ a township school and spend a slice of their social responsibility budgets on building more libraries.

“We desperately need to increase literacy in SA and help fill our country’s great educational void.”

This library prototype will be completed by early September, and will be unveiled at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at which advocate George Bizos will officiate.

The library has been built using shipping containers and will provide a blueprint for other like-minded literacy leaders to follow.

Bizos is a campaigner for equal education and a supporter of the “One school, one library” campaign.

“Education is an essential ingredient for a prosperous life,” says Bizos.